FAFO Friday - Conflicts of Interest

Legislation would restrict local government but ignore giant state level conflict

Every year in the Kansas Legislature, there’s no shortage of efforts to restrict the actions of local governments.

The same crowd waving their Gadsden flags while screaming about the runaway over-reaching federal government loves to behave in much the same fashion by imposing state government’s will onto your city councils and county commissions.

The Kansas Legislature has or has attempted to prevent local governments from establishing a prevailing wage law, eliminating plastic bags, enacting local energy policies - even went as far in the past couple of years to say that local governments had no right to restrict any business unless the state did so first. (That was until some of us on the committee pointed out that would restrict local governments from zoning where things like an adult merchandise store could go).

This year, they’ve heard legislation to prevent cities from exploring the idea of Universal Basic Income - which isn’t even anything on the near horizon. But someone got freaked out because someone in Lawrence invited people to watch a movie about it).

So I was interested to see the story on SB66, which would require members of elected local governments to disclose their interests in development projects and force them to abstain from voting on any action related to the matter. The bill includes language that would allow the Attorney General to prosecute any violation of the law.

I don’t have much real issue with a requirement for people in office to disclose how they make their money and if they stand to profit from the projects and policies they support - as well as the policies that keep from ever seeing the light of day.

I do, however, have a real issue with the Kansas Legislature kicking around additional restrictions for local governments that it won’t impose on itself.

And that brings me to my hypothesis about one of the real underlying reason we haven’t been able to even have an honest conversation about Medicaid Expansion in Kansas. Or why we don’t have any real conversation about how to do anything that even remotely addresses the very real issues that Kansans face in accessing, and affording, healthcare.

It’s not impossible that it’s linked to Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins having a financial interest in selling group health insurance policies to employers. It’s also not impossible that it could be affecting the thinking of the chair of the Senate Health Committee, Beverly Gossage. There are others I know who also made some money through selling health insurance policies, but I’m not going to bring in to this degree people who are no longer in office.

From Hawkins’ LinkedIn page…

And here’s his Statement of Substantial Interest which lawmakers are required to fill out each year. I have downloaded every one from Hawkins’ 12 years in office, and they are mostly very much like this.

Here’s Gossage’s SSI…

I couldn’t possibly know what’s in a person’s heart - until they reveal it out loud. But I know what motivates the bulk of legislation and that is money. Almost everything that happens in Topeka is structured around someone making money off of a problem, or someone getting taxpayer money to shore up their business by solving a problem - sometimes a problem that doesn’t really exist.

All the while that Hawkins, et al, have been talking about these able-bodied adults who could be working, insulting an entire group of people who perform needed jobs in our community for not much money. I have worked in these fields, and I have friends that work in these fields.

One of the major arguments this clan makes against Medicaid Expansion is that people would migrate from their employer sponsored health coverage to Medicaid. And they would - because it would be smart financially to get better coverage for less money. But that wouldn’t be financially lucrative to people who sell those insurance policies to employers.

I’ve all but given up on any hope that Kansas won’t be the last state to get this done. Some of the groups lobbying for expansion are just beat down and tired. Others seem happy to accept their contracts and payments without doing a whole lot of advocacy work beyond shrugging their shoulders with a sort of “what-are-ya-gonna-do” attitude. And with what’s happening at the federal level, it seems less likely than ever we’ll ever get any traction on this.

Kansas, by the way, is one of only 10 states that has essentially told all its poor and disabled people to go pound sand.

Expanded Medicaid would cover incomes up to $35,445 for a family of 3 and $42,760 for a family of 4. That is over $17 and $20.55 per hour, respectively. It’s not uncommon for people to make far less than that in Hutchinson. I wrote earlier this week that the median household income in the 67501 Zip code was $50,069 - not far off from that $42,760 coverage gap threshold. For those in the 102nd District, areas have median incomes around $30,000.

For those below that income, most don’t qualify for marketplace subsidies or Medicaid - leaving them in a coverage gap. They work - as daycare providers, stylists, servers, bartenders, housekeepers, home health aids, custodians, store clerks, start up businesses - and many more roles critical to our daily lives that Hawkins and his followers have no trouble thrashing. (Much of the Kansas Congressional delegation is guilty of the same denigration).

Every time Hawkins utters the words “able-bodied adults” he’s insulting every one of these people. He’s literally trashing the people that bring him the food that lobbyists buy for him. He’s insulting the people that take care of the Kansas Statehouse. It’s, frankly, disgusting. I always find it revolting when these so-called Christian leaders so freely speak so vilely of their fellow humans who happen to be in less fortunate circumstances.

He’s also insulting the business owners who employ them and love them like family, but can’t make the math, math, on buying insurance policies for their employees from people like Hawkins and Gossage.

Adding to the sliminess is this stupid group that has a misleading name to make is seem they are standing up for your right to have good, affordable health insurance. It’s actually a weird front for insurance companies and the state’s biggest corporations to make sure that nothing ever changes in any way this actually good for people. The people that lobby for this group is the same lot that advocates for taking food out of poor people’s mouths, all in the name of some perverted form of Christian love.

I for one am glad that we’re talking about looking more closely at conflicts of interest - and raising questions about how those conflicts influence what does, and what doesn’t, make its way through the Kansas legislature.

These are just a few of the examples that exist of conflicts in Topeka, but the topic of Medicaid Expansion feels like one that deserves more public scrutiny.

In the past 12 years, Hawkins has led the charge against any hint of a legitimate conversation about Medicaid expansion. And in that time people have died, rural hospitals have closed, mid-sized community health centers have struggled to survive the weight of uncompensated care, providers have left the state, and people have been forced to exit the workforce because they can’t get the care their need. County jails have become de facto mental health centers, and the cost of care has been pushed town to local units of government.

And it’s a legitimate question to ask if all that was done so that a handful of people could keep making money by selling health insurance policies. It’s time to ask if part of the reason for all that loss over the years might have anything to do with a conflict of interest that has unduly influenced policy and procedure in the Kansas Legislature.

Then maybe we can look at adding members of the Kansas Legislature to any bill that aims to increase transparency - and restrictions - on voting for one’s own enrichment.